Negative aspects of close social relations and 10-year incident ischaemic heart disease hospitalization among middle-aged Danes

Abstract

Background:

Little is known about the association between negative aspects of close social relations and development of ischaemic heart disease (IHD). We aim to address if the experience of worries/demands and conflicts with close social relations are related to risk of first-time hospitalization with IHD and whether emotional support can buffer this effect.

Methods:

A total of 8550 randomly selected men and women aged 36–52 years free of earlier IHD hospitalization at baseline in 2000 were followed prospectively for first-time hospitalization with IHD (ICD10: I21–25) through 2010 in the Danish National Patient Registry. Cox regression analysis was used to analyse data and all analyses were adjusted for age, gender, social class, cohabitation, and depressive symptoms.

Results:

Worries/demands from and conflicts with children were associated with IHD hospitalization in an exposure-dependent manner (p-trends 0.0001 and 0.03) with twice the risk among those most highly exposed, HR_{worries/demands} = 2.05 (95% CI 0.91–4.54) and HR_conflicts=1.90 (95% CI 1.00–3.61). ‘Always’ experiencing worries/demands from partner was also associated with a nearly twice the risk of IHD, whereas no association was found for conflicts with partner. High levels of worries/demands from or conflicts with family and friends were associated with a 40% higher risk of IHD.

Conclusions:

Negative aspects of close social relations are associated with higher risk of incident IHD hospitalization except for conflicts with partner. We found no clear evidence of a buffering effect of emotional support.

Keywords

Ischaemic heart disease longitudinal study social network social support

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